Process of mashing



c. DAVIS. PROCFSS'OF MASHING. APPLICATION FILED JAN. 29, I915- Patented Jan. 13, 1920.

35 sugar.

crimes 3 DAVIS, 01? NEW roam-1w. it.

raocnssor Massimo.

- g eoiiioatlon of Letterlletent. I k V Patent d Jan. 13, 1920.

.Applidation fil ed January 2a, 1915, Serial m. 5,161.

i To all whom it may concern.

Be it known thatI, CHARLES -B. Davis, a citizen of the United States, residmg at v New York, in the county of New York and.

5 State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Processes of Mashing, of specification. l s This invention relates to improvements in methods of treating enzymatic masses,-more specifically to the art of mashing. It is useful in brewing, that is, the making of beer, ale, alcohol, &c., in distilling, in concentrating enzymatic syrups, and in otheranalogous arts. s

. I shall herein describe the process which constitutes my invention in connection with the mashing of a mixture of water, grain and malt materials such as are employed in themaking of beer and the like, but it will be understood that the description based upon the behavior of these particular ingredients ustrative merely, and

under my process,'is il is not to be taken as in any way limitative of the claims.

In the accompanying drawing the figure illustrates, partly in elevation and partly in section, a mash-tun or receptacle which may be employedin carrying out my process. At normal temperatures, that is from 32 F. to 86 F., all enzyms, such aspeptase, and diastase, pass into solution. Peptases act upon peptones or similar degradation prodi ucts of protein; diastase converts starch into The. activity of these enzy'ms'begins asthe temperature increases from 70 F. and changes with the increase of temperature above that point. At 86 F. there is substantially no action save that of softeningthe grain and dissolving already formed sugar, peptase and 'diastaser 1 At about 113 F. peptase becomes'active, the diastase is ractically inactivef At 131 Ethe peptase comes inactive. From'this point to 149 F. the diastase increases its activity a saccharifier. At 150 F. the activity of the diastase starts to lessen, at 151 to'158" it becomes still weaker, at 162 F. it is very weak, a

' and at 167 F. it practically ceases to be a saccharifier, though it is stillactiveas a, starchliquefier. At 176 to185 Fpfurther yactivity is noticed resulting in the trafi Q1 0f h rally of. hemicellulose (g'ranulose, starch cellulose,,amylo-pectins,

SEQpentosans and hexosans),'t o' starch in' a ge-' l'atinized and insoluble state, Itwill accord which the following: is a ,perature where the proportions will be 1.0

means of a steam coil, or a steam jacket, or direct hot water. Of these methods the one steam 'inletonly were us'ed, the steam would overheat la'fpart of the mash in a straight ingly be evident that the proportions of soluble albuminoids and sugar in the resultmg extract will dependupon the tempera; tures to which the mash is subjected; For lnstance, at 147 F. the proportions of sugar and non-su ar in the extract is about 1.0 sugar to 0.3 non-sugar, at 150 F. about 1.0 sugar to 0.40 non-sugar, at 155 F. about 1.0 sugar to 0.48 non-sugar, atl157 F. about 1.0 sugar to 0.52 non-sugar, at 162 F.about 1.0 sugarto 0.57 non-sugar. i

If it is desired to produce ale, the mash will be broughtto'th'at condition and temsugar to 0.37 non-sugar. For lager beer, I prefer from 1.0 sugar to between 0.48'and 0.57 non-sugar, which result may be attained by'raising the temperature to about 156 F.

If one desires to prepare a distillers mash 7-5 forproduction of alcohol, the mash is maintained between the temperatures 140 F. and 150 R, which allows the diastase'to form practically all sugar from the s'accharification of the starch, since it is the sugar that forms the alcohol by fermentation. i

In present da practice this heati'ngof the mashis accomp ished either bymeans of direct or live steam, or indirect heating by in general use is that of employing live ,steam, which .is discharged directly into the mash, This, direct steam method is-subject toobjections, because it is very difiicult to .--distribute the steamthroughout the mass of -.th'e mash. In the case of too fine distribution, thatis, if a circular-steam pipe with too small' perforations led ,inside' the edge of the bottom of the tub, the mash would be overheated at that part, and the stirrers and shovels would have to work hotmash to the' -,center in order to mix the whole mash. In

the case of insufficient distribution of the steam," on the otherhand, that is, if one, large streak, across the: mash and the stirrerswould, take considerable" time in equalizing the temperature oftlie Whole mash. In either case theindicatioir of the thermometer. atthe' time the steam isshut off would be misleading, as that" part of the mash near the steam inlets would be much. hotter than thebulkof the mas :the disadvanta' e of 110 which needs no 'inth art.

explanation to one s illed,

The steam coil and steam jacket cause a similar uneven heating ofthe mash and have the additional disadvantage of consuming more steam than would; be necessa if live steam were emplo ed, dueto the loss of the hot water or con ensed steam which is run away, and its latent heat, when liberated directly ,to the walls of the coil or jacket, burns the mash and kills the enzyms.

To heat the mash with hot water under present practice, such water is first heated 1n a separate tank, an l run into the mash through the bottom. The objection to this method is thata wide range of temperature is not attainable, and high initial temperatures must be used, or the mash becomes too V through a coil or jacket, it will have of course a very much higher temperature than the mash at the beginning of operations.

The consequence is. that the sudden rise of temperature kills some of the diastase, and so much as is thus killed is of course incapable of further useful activity. Another objection to the use of steam is due to the fact that thereis an immense amount of latent heat given up by the steam whenit condenses and this causes burning of the mash, and caramelization'. It may be that the amount of material sealded is comparatively small but unquestionably it is suflicientt'o interfere} with the activity of the v enzyms' and to appreciably curtail the yield.

' Some of the same objections are to be noted where hot water is applied directly to the mash. Furthermore, since the quantity of water to be used in making a brewing is limited, if much ofit is used for raising the temperature of the mash, there will be so .much the less left to be used for sparging,.because if thetotal quantit of water used beexcessive, the extract -w' be dilute u and it will be necessary to concentrate it by boiling off some of the extrawater. And if the amount left 'forsparging be too small,

' 1 there may not be suflicient of it to secure the thorough removal from the mash of the elements which go to maKeup the extract,

Q and the yieldv will be correspondingly small.

Inaccordance with myproccss, the mash materials are placed"within a tun ofthe ,sort. shown in the drawing. The tun is i'ndicatedqin a characte -.1 n

:amanhole-2 and door 3. 'Th@ tunlis watergeneral 'way' by. the reference has a cover provided with jacketed as indicated at 4 and has a strainer bottom 5 and a bottom'outlet 6 controlled by a valve 7. Preferably I also employ a slght gage 8 by the use 0 which it is ossible to determine whether or not the rainage from the grains is going on too rapidly. Inside'the tun there is a revolving rake and stirring apparatus, comprisin a beam '10 mounted on the end of a vertical sleeve 11 whose lower end bears upon a disk 12 that is set into a beveled gear 14 which in turn rests upon a hollow piston or plunger 15. This plun er 15 reciprocates wlthin a cylinder 16 w iich rests upon suitable supports 17 and 18 indicates an inlet for hydraulic,

pressure below the plunger 15. The plunger isiguided in its reciprocation by means of an internal sleeve 19 formed on the cylinder 16, and the inside of this sleeve 19 accommodates a drive sleeve 20 which extends also through the plunger 15, beveled gear 14, disk 12, sleeve ll a'nd beam 10. The beam 10] supports by means of brackets'21 and agitator shaft 24, on which are mounted agitator members 25. The shaft '24:, is caused to rotate by means of a beveled gear at its inner end indicated by the numeral 26, which beveled gear meshes with the beveled gear 14. One portion of the beam 10, in the present instancethat portion which is. to the left of the center in Fig. 1, is hollow and is in communication with the upper end of the'sleeve 20. This hollow portion of the beam-1O at its outer end, that is toward the left in the drawing, is in communication with a series of parallel pipes 27. A pipe 28 discharges through the cover of the tun into the sleeve 20, which latter is. of course blocked off below the beam 10. Consequently, water coming through pipe 28 into the upper end of sleeve 20 finds its way thro h the hollow portion of the beam 10 into the several pipes 27, whence it is discharged through any suitable connection into a pipe 29 that passes upwardly through the lower part of sleeve 20. Thus provision is made for a circulation of "water through the pipes 27. The beam 10 and with it the pipes 27 and agitator shaft 24 may be raised and lowered by propercontrol of the hydraulicfluid from pipe l8, and the beam- 10 'may be caused to rotate within the tun by means of a beveled gear 30 on the shaft 20, driven from abeveled gear 31. The numeral 32 indicates a sparger, which is also supplied with water from the pipe 28 'by means .of any suitable connection.

ill Ks befclire stated, wager is introduced into t e-trave ingpipes 27 om the sup 1 ipe 28, and the water after passing h i'o ilgh these pi es 27 discharges through the pipe 2?.5'1 At t e same time water is supplied from p pc 34 to the jacket. 4', whence it discharges through pipe 35.

In the use of the invention the system is. filled with water at ordinary temperatures, which will accordingly be about the team perature of the mash mixture. Steam is now permitted to pass through a pipe 36 and through an injector device 37, which pulls the water out of pipes 29 and and propels it through pipe 38, which pipe 38, is in communication with the pipes 28 and 3 1, thereby causing a continuous circulation of the water in the system through the ipes or rakes 27 and through the water jacket 4. The steam has also the function of gradually raising the temperature of the water which it is causing to circulate. Thermometers 40 are conveniently placed to indicate the temperature of the mash, of the water in the water jacket, in the pipes or rakes 27, and in the pipe 38. It is my aim to raise the temperature of the mash gradually and I contemplate that the water entering the jacket or rake shall not at any time be more than a few degrees higher in temperature than the mash within the tun, and the raising of the temperature of the water or heating medium is gradual and without sudden shocks, and so is also the increase in temperature of the mash. Because of this progressive temperature change and exchange, and because of the fact that I use hot water as a heating medium and not steam, scorching, caramelization, killing and shocking of the enzyms and other objectionable phenomena noted above are absolutely avoided. F urthermore, because I employ a heating medium whose temperature can never, under ordinary conditions, even reach 212 F. or contain latent heat, it would be practically impossible in any event to scorch or burn the mash. Two points therefore I deem of im portance: first, the use of hot water as an indirect heating medium for the mash which contains only 180.8 heat units per pound above 32 F., while steam contains 1146.6, of which 965.8 is latent and would be set free instantly on condensation against the walls of jacket and rake tubes with destruction of the enzyms. In my hot Water system the latent heat is liberated and spends its fury heating the water outside the jacket and rakes, thus saving steam and protecting the activity of the enzyms. And, secondly, beginning operations with the heating medium at substantially the same temperature as the mash, and then accomplishing a gradual increase of temperature in the heating medium and a corresponding gradual increase in temperature of the mash, the latter lagging always just a little way behind. Furthermore, the method is very economical of water, because the latter is in a substantially closed circuit and the heat units are practically all absorbed by the mash.

When any desired temperature of the mash is reached, this will be indicated by the appropriate thermometer 40, and if it is necessary to hold that temperature for a time this may be readily accomplished by manipulation of the steam pipe. The surplus water in the system resulting from the condensation of the steam, overflows from the expansion tank 41 into an overflow pipe 12. By regulating the steam and cold water pipes 36 and 43 the temperature of the mash may be'either raised or lowered and may be held at any particular temperature to which it is thus brought for any desired length of time. The action of the revolving beam 10 with its rakes 27 and agitators 25 is of course familiar, and the raising and lowering of the beam, by raising and lowering the plunger 15, is to accomplish the thorough mixing of the mash throughout all of the strata thereof.

I claim:

1. The process of heating mash or the like enzymatic mass, which consists in subjecting the same to the indirect heating action of hot water by bringing the water gradually up from the initial temperature of-the mash to the desired temperature and applying the water, so gradually heated. to the mash indirectly and throughout the mass thereof, so that the mash will be gradually and uniformly heated throughout, and maintaining the heating water in a closed circuit.

9.. The improvement in the art of mashing which consists in subjecting mash to the indirect temperaturechanging action of water, by gradually changing the tempera ture of the water from the initial temperature of the mash to that temperature to which it is desired to bring the mash, meanwhile keeping the wa-ter-in circulating indirect contact with the mash.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

' CHARLES B. DAVIS.

WVitnesses:

WM. R-AIMOND Baum,

ALBA L. MILLER. 

